Winter Jam Tour Is Nearing Its 30th Year! NewSong’s Russ Lee Shares Why the Gospel Has Always Remained the Focus

Winter Jam Russ Lee NewSong
Winter Jam Tour 2024 / Photo credit: Jesse Jackson

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The Winter Jam 2024 tour kicked off last month and is scheduled to make stops in 39 cities across the Eastern half of the U.S.

This year’s lineup includes of Crowder, Lecrae, Cain, Katy Nichole, Seventh Day Slumber, NewSong, SEU Worship, John Wesley, Lin D, Joseph O’Brien, and speaker Zane Black—costing only $15 at the door. It is one of the largest Christian music tours in the world.

ChurchLeaders sat down with NewSong’s Russ Lee, one of the people that helped build Winter Jam to what it is today, and Lee shared that this the 28th year for the annual tour, which started out being called NewSong and Friends, then January Jam, and now Winter Jam.

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“We’ve watched God take this thing and just explode it into something we never could have even imagined,” Lee said. Looking back on it now, “it was beyond us what God was planning. You know, we just wanted to show up and be faithful.”

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Lee said he holds Winter Jam “very loosely, because it’s God’s tour and we will do it until he decides we shouldn’t do it anymore.”

There are two things that have remained the same from start of Winter Jam almost 30 years ago. Lee shared “one is the inexpensive door price.”

“It’s not a cheap tour because it’s a big tour,” he added. “A hundred and fifty people on the road, between 13 and 15 buses, trucks, and a catering team. We’re moving a small army around the country, but we work hard to keep it inexpensive in order to keep this attainable to anyone who wants to attend.”

(L) David Crowder (R) Lecrae; Photo credit: Jesse Jackson

As inexpensive as that is for a concert, let alone an arena concert, Lee said that the tour welcomes in those who can’t afford the ticket price. “We don’t want anybody to be left outside, because the $15 door is not the star of Winter Jam. The gospel is,” he said.

The second thing that hasn’t changed is making the gospel the main focus of the tour. In fact, Lee explained that when the gospel is shared every night on the tour, merchandise sales are shut down in an attempt to eliminate all distractions.

RELATED: Disciple, Andy Mineo, and Anne Wilson Help Winter Jam Witness Over 7,200 Salvations in 3 weeks

“Our goal is always just to make much of Jesus and not just in our songs,” Lee said, “But we want to stop the music and let everyone know and remind them of why we’re here and how important it is that they hear about Jesus.”

Lee said that through the tour, he has “seen people’s lives change, people rescued, and pulled out of addictions since the tour started. That’s exciting to us.”

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Jesse T. Jackson
Jesse is the Senior Content Editor for ChurchLeaders and Site Manager for ChristianNewsNow. An undeserving husband to a beautiful wife, and a father to 4 beautiful children. He serves as the chairman of the deacons, a growth group leader, and is a member of University Baptist Church in Beavercreek, Ohio. Follow him on twitter here (https://twitter.com/jessetjackson). Accredited member of the Evangelical Press Association.

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